Keven Boon, general manager of the BC Cattleman's Association, listened to the Liberal announcement in Vernon on Feb. 22.

Scott Anderson, Chair of the British Columbia Conservative Party Finance Committee and candidate for Vernon-Monashee, says the Liberals have been dangling reform of the meat processing rules in front of voters for five years with no results.

After five long years during which 900 of the 1200 former local producers have gone out of business, the Liberals announced with that five (5) class E licenses will be granted for the entire North Okanagan.

"For five years farmers have been going out of business, and for five years the Liberals have done nothing at all," said Anderson. "Now that an election is around the corner the Liberals have finally acted - with a ridiculously inadequate gesture."

"The idea of halting farm gate sales in the first place was an attempt to fix something that was never broken," said Anderson. "If the Liberals have finally come to that realization, why haven't they restored the ability for farmers to sell meat over the farm across the board? If they have decided that five licenses aren't going to cause a health problem, why would 25 or 30 licenses cause a health problem?"

Anderson says the BC Interior has seen massive migration of young families to Alberta due to a lack of good paying jobs, and onerous Liberal regulations are at least partly responsible. He says the BC Conservatives will lower taxes and reduce the burden of unnecessary regulation that is driving families out of BC.